Healthcare Daily Digest for 31 January 2013: Torn Between Two Lovers, Medicare Fraud and Political Corruption

Meet Dr Salomon Melgen. He’s a Florida opthalmologist whose offices were recently raided by both the FBI and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Turns out, Dr Melgen is under suspicion of what appears to incredibly easy to do these days: defrauding Medicare.

But wait, there’s more.

Turns out, Melgen might — and, let’s remember: innocent until proven and all of that — might also be in the middle of some weird shenanigans involving U.S. Senator Bob Menendez, a Democrat from New Jersey. “The FBI is separately examining the ties between Menendez, a New Jersey Democrat, and Melgen in a parallel corruption investigation launched last year, The Miami Herald has learned.” Oh, and this: “The tipster’s most explosive charge:–” p.s., earlier in the article, we make the acquaintance of a “shadowy tipster” who “claimed the doctor flew Menendez on his plane to the Dominican Republic” — “that the two [Dr Melgen and Senator Menendez] allegedly hired underage prostitutes.”

Menendez and his camp strenuously deny the prostitution part, claiming that the whole thing was an election year cook-up manufactured by the conservative news site TheDailyCaller.com. “What has transpired since is a web of political recriminations, big money, sex, hard-ball investigations and a public-relations nightmare for a powerful politician and his longtime friend, Melgen, who couldn’t be reached for comment.”

Treat yourself to this story.

Other goings-on around the Internet:

• In Medicare News NOT Related to its Being Scammed…: “Medicare and its beneficiaries in 100 metropolitan areas will pay less for durable equipment beginning July 1.”

• Congratulations on Your Citizenship! Now, Don’t Get Sick or Need Healthcare: “The White House plan might give undocumented immigrants a faster path to citizenship than the Senate plan, and it holds out for the recognition of same-sex couples as families. But to appease potential opponents, Obama’s plan denies health care coverage to newly legalized immigrants.”

• Enhancing Patient Safety from Technology: The Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association (JAMIA) has laid out suggestions in four areas: research into health IT-related human factors; health IT policy; vendors; and clinician end users. You can read the paper here.

• Healthcare Technology Best Practices: From this page you can download a whitepaper that covers “Active Directory Disasters & Solutions for Preventing Them.” You’re welcome!